Cancer awareness event set for Friday

FREEHOLD — March is locally and nationally known as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and CentraState Health System will “Paint the Town Blue” with a special event on Friday, to kick off the Cancer Awareness Month.

The hospital staff, cancer survivors and community members will come together at 1 p.m., to illuminate blue lights in front of the hospital that will remain throughout the month. Volunteers will also tie blue ribbons on trees in front of the hospital and in downtown Freehold and a large banner will be placed in town to help raise awareness of the disease.

To show their support, hospital staff members will also be dressing in blue on Friday, says Jan Dragotta, clinical director of Radiation Oncology, who is helping coordinate the event.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among cancers that strike both men and women. More than 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer of the colon or rectum each year, and more than 50,000 people die from the disease. However, as many as 60 percent of deaths from this cancer could be avoided if everyone 50 years old or older were screened regularly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Most screenings we do for cancer try to detect the disease in earliest stages, when it is most treatable,” Dragotta says. “However, colorectal cancer screening can actually prevent the disease by finding precancerous polyps, which can be removed before they turn into cancer.” Depending on a person’s age and medical history, screening may include one or more tests including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, a fecal occult blood test or a double-contrast barium enema.

Paint the Town Blue will be followed by a series of free talks and screenings throughout the month of March.